Disclaimer: Digimon could never and will never belong to me.

A/N: Woo Hoo! I'm finally on summer break and out of school. No homework for 2 months! Yes! Well sorry it took so long for me to update this story but I don't really like this story anymore. Anyway I'm still trying to make this interesting for you guys. Well read on and enjoy.

Hope's Return Home

Chapter Nine

The game was going well for TK. He was in the lead. He and Kane agreed that they would play up to 40 points. TK now had 36 and Kane had 34. TK had his friends from New York cheering him on and Kari cheered for Kane, which made want to puke. He couldn't figure out why Kari would like a guy like Kane. Maybe it was the fact that Kane was muscular and hot!

Kane now had the ball and was dribbling it toward his basket. He scored a three pointer making the score 36 to 37 with Kane in the lead. TK had the ball now. He was running and Kane was in front of him. TK then gave Kane a crossover and then slam dunked. He laughed because now he only had one more basket to make to win the game.

Kane ran towards his basket, took a shot, and missed. "Darn!" he yelled. TK had the ball. "Looks like I'm gonna win." TK said. He ran towards his basket with a big smile on his face. 'Now's my chance to impress Kari.' TK thought. TK stopped and took a shot, but Kane appeared out of nowhere and smacked the ball out of TK's hand. Then he took off with the ball to his end of the court.

TK was too stunned to do anything. He watched as Kane made anther three pointer and won the game.

"Yay Kane!" Kari cheered as she ran and gave him a hug. TK's friends walked over to him to comfort him. "Sorry about the loss TK" Kat said. "Yeah. It wasn't so bad anyway." Chris said. "Whatever." TK muttered. He was feeling lousy.

Kane walked over to TK and put his hand out so he could shake TK's hand. "Good game." Kane said. TK didn't shake Kane's hand. Instead, he turned around and walked away. 'This has to be the worst day of my life.' TK thought sadly.

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TK and his friends had now arrived back at his apartment. "Come on TK, cheer up! You played a good game. It was just a game." Kat tried to cheer TK up. "Uh Kat, I think TK thought it was more than 'just a game'." Mel said. "Yeah, he didn't just lose the game, he lost Kari." Rick said without even thinking before he spoke. "Shut up Rick!" TK yelled. "Sorry." Rick muttered.

"Well we got to pack now and head to the airport." Mel stated. "What do you mean you have to head to the airport?" ask TK. "We gotta go back home today buddy. We have work to get back to." Chris replied. "You didn't tell me you were leaving today." TK said. "Oops, must've forgotten that little detail." Mel said sheepishly.

Two hours later TK and his friends were at the airport. "So when will I see you guys again?" TK asked. "Whenever you decide to get your lazy back to New York." Rick replied.

"Last call for the flight from Odaiba to New York. I repeat, last call for the flight from Odaiba to New York!" the announcer called.

"Well that's us. Later TK!" Chris said. Rick, Kat, and Chris walked to their plane. Mel stayed back for a few seconds. "It was nice seeing you again TK. Bye the way, even though I'm your ex-fiancé and I shouldn't be trying to help get a girlfriend, I'll still give you some advice. Don't give up. Go tell Kari how you feel and tell her what's in your heart." "Easier said than done." TK said. "Well bye Mel. I'm glad you came, and trust me, the next time we see each other we'll have a lot more fun." He gave Mel a tight hug and then she walked to the plane.

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It was now 7:00pm and TK was sulking around his apartment. He was upset because his friends went back to New York, but he was still mostly upset because he lost the basketball game.

He kept thinking about what Mel said. 'Tell Kari how that I love her? Should I? I don't know if I can. But if I don't I could lose her forever. I'll have to tell her!'

Not wanting to wait until his courage went away, TK got up and drove to Kari's apartment. He went up to her floor and knocked on the door.

Kari opened the door and had a surprised look on her face when she saw TK. "Uh hey TK. What are you doing here." "I need to talk to you." TK replied. Kari opened the door wider to let him in.

"So what do you want to talk about?" Kari asked. "Well uh...I don't think you should see Kane anymore." TK said. "Really?" Kari was a bit taken aback by what TK had said. "Why shouldn't I see him anymore?" she asked. "Because he isn't right for you. You'll never had with him what you had with me." TK said. "That means I won't have a broken heart because that's what I had with you." Kari stated.

TK didn't really know what else to say. "Maybe you should leave now TK." Kari said. TK look straight into her eyes. "No. I'm not gonna leave. I left you five years ago and I'm not doing it again. I...I love you Kari." "TK I-" Before Kari could finish her sentence, she felt TK's warm lips pressed against hers.

Suddenly someone grabbed TK's shoulder from behind. TK was spun around and then he felt a hard blow to his eye. TK staggered and fell to the floor. When he looked up he saw Kane there. "Stay away from my girl!" Kane yelled. "Ouch, that hurt." was all TK managed to say.

Kari knelt down next to TK. "TK are you okay?" she asked with concern. "Yeah, sure. I think I'll leave now." He said. He was angry but he didn't really want to fight Kane since he knew that Kane could kick his but anytime.

TK then got up and walked out the door. 'How many times am I gonna lose to that jerk!' he thought as he hopped into his car.

Instead of going home, TK decided to go to Matt's apartment. He needed to talk to older brother. The one thing he missed about being in New York for five years was talking to Matt about his problems. TK liked getting advice from Matt, even though sometimes it would bad advice.

TK arrived at his brother's apartment and knocked on the door. Sora opened the door. "Oh hi TK. What brings you by?" she greeted her brother-in-law "Is Matt here? I kinda need to talk to him." TK replied. "Oh, okay. Come in. Matt's just trying to put Kyle to sleep."

Matt walked out a few seconds later. "I here voices." He said. Then he saw his younger brother. "Oh it's just you." "Nice to see you too." TK responded sarcastically. Matt took

Matt took a look at his brother's eye. "Wow, I thought that when black eyes get better the color fades, not gets even darker. Don't tell me you got into another fight TK." TK sighed and replied, "I didn't get into a fight. I just got punched really hard." "Who punched and why?" Sora asked. "Kane punched me because he saw me kissing Kari." TK answered. "You kissed Kari?!" Sora exclaimed. "Why'd you let him punch you and not punch him back?!" Matt asked.

TK rolled his eyes at them and answered, "Yes I kissed Kari and I didn't really feel liked getting beaten up again so I didn't fight back." "Come on TK, you have to stand up to this guy and get your girl back." Matt encouraged. "I tried that Matt. I challenged him to a game of basketball and he beat me at too." TK said with a tone of frustration. "Do you want me and Tai to beat him for you?" Matt asked. "Don't you think you're too old and mature to go around beating up people?" asked Sora.

"I don't need you to beat him up for me." TK said. "I just need some advice on how to get him out of Kari's life so I could be with her." "Well what did you say to Kari before you kissed her?" Sora asked. "I told her that I loved her." TK replied. "Did she say anything to you." Sora asked. "Well I didn't give her time to say anything. I just kissed her." TK said. "Did she kiss back?" asked Matt. "I think so." TK said. "It wasn't a very long kiss because Kane walked in and ripped me away from her and then he punched me."

There was silence for a while then Sora said, "I think you should talk to Kari again. Just make sure that Kane is nowhere around and won't be making any surprise visits." "Yeah that's probably the best thing to do." Matt agreed. "Yeah I guess." TK muttered.

TK left Sora and Matt's apartment after and hour. He didn't feel like going home so he decided to take a walk around the park. He still didn't really know what to do about Kari. He agreed with Matt and Sora that he had to talk to her, he just had no clue what to say. He already told her that he loved her. What else could he possibly say?

TK stopped walking and sat on one of the park benches. He needed to think about this a lot. 'Maybe I shouldn't have kissed her. I may have made things worse between us.' He thought.

Then someone sat down next to him. "I think we need to talk." TK looked next to him and saw Kari there. He nodded in agreement and said, "Yeah we need to talk."

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Chapter 9 is done! I hope you liked this chapter. Well please review. I love hearing what you think of the story. The next chapter will be the last chapter and this story will finally be finished. I'll try to get chapter 10 up quicker than this chapter so you won't have to wait forever. Bye for now.